Expressions of public dissent violate the smug Brussels worldview in which all EU decisions are for the best, in the best of all possible worlds. Any challenge provokes accusations of populism and xenophobia. Nothing can be more alien to the Brussels mind than the cut and thrust of referendum debates over Europe — it risks giving the people a say over matters that Europe’s managerial political caste consider theirs alone.

And these people suggest that anyone who disagrees with them simply must be right wing fascists, indeed Nazis. A familiar tactic?

The idea that voters are the bearers of a fascistic, nationalist or irrational virus that threatens to tear down civilisation, emerged again two weeks ago when Tony Blair waded into the British referendum debate. “Nationalism is a powerful sentiment. Let that genie out of the bottle and it is a Herculean task to put it back. Reason alone struggles. The referendum on Europe carries with it the same risk,” he said.

Don’t be fooled by the apocalyptic scaremongering: these people are just frightened of losing. Blair revealed as much when he warned about “the perilous fragility of public support for the sensible choice”. It is a grubby mindset that reveals the lack of strong proEuropean ideals among the EU’s supporters. They, our managers, people like Blair, know best. We, the voters, the irrational public, cannot be trusted to be “sensible”. The EU’s enduring hostility to referendums reveals it to be a union of rulers united in mistrust of the people. The referendum question is the acid test.

All of this reminds me of William F. Buckley Jr’s observation that he would rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 people listed in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University.

The same goes for a random sample of Eurosceptics compared to the EU bureaucracy.